On the Road: Donating cars for a good cause

SInce 1993, Calgary's Kidney Car Program has been recycling old vehicles for kidney disease patients

by
Greg Williams | February 5, 2016

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All vehicles have a life cycle. Although some of the more interesting models might be saved and cherished by collectors, others simply hit the end of the road.

The last resting place for many of these vehicles is the family driveway. When I was younger, I remember paying a tow truck driver to haul away the dead 1969 Dodge Dart, the 1959 Volkswagen Beetle, the – oh, the cars that had to be scrapped.

Makes me wish the Kidney Car Program had been around back then.

“Over the years, thousands of vehicles have been donated to the program,” said Joyce Van Deurzen, executive director of the Kidney Foundation of Canada’s Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan branches.

Instituted in 1993, Kidney Car in Calgary was the first vehicle donation program of its kind to be launched in Canada. Similar initiatives existed in the U.S., but not here.

“The object of the exercise is to recycle old and unwanted vehicles in an environmentally friendly way,” Van Deurzen said. “Every part of the car is either resold, reused or otherwise recycled, right down to the windshield washer fluid and the oil.”

The program would not exist without Calgary’s Sheppard family and their large Pick Your Part self-service used auto parts and recycling facility on Barlow Trail. Aware of vehicle donation programs that were operating elsewhere, the family knew their business was ideally suited to help out a local charity.

“The Sheppard family initially approached us,” Van Deurzen said. “I don’t think we ever could have got a program like this off the ground without them.”

With one call to the Kidney Car line, the rest of the details are looked after by the wrecking yard, including dispatch of the tow truck (403-279-7707).

In 2004, Schnitzer Steel Industries purchased Pick Your Part, and changed the name of the operation to Pick-N-Pull. While the recycling yard is under a new name and ownership, it continues to be the destination for vehicles donated to Kidney Car.

Anyone donating a vehicle to Kidney Car receives at minimum a $300 charitable tax receipt plus the free removal of an unwanted vehicle. All funds raised through the sale of vehicles, parts or scrap helps pay for programs and services for people affected by kidney disease, plus clinical research initiatives.

Since being launched in Calgary, the Kidney Car program has been adopted by other branches across the country.

“We always say it’s an opportunity to turn an unwanted vehicle into a life saving machine,” Van Deurzen said.

Bernie Badyk of Calgary has twice called the Kidney Car line. Most recently he donated a 1995 Dodge Intrepid, a car with low mileage that required a bit of work to keep it roadworthy.

“People told me there was still some value in it and that I should list it for sale,” Badyk explained. “But I didn’t want to go through with that exercise.

“Instead, I called the Kidney Car line. It’s a good cause, and with one call the car’s gone.”

Badyk’s car had near-new tires on it and ran well, but had a few body issues and needed new rear shocks. It’s likely that Badyk’s car wasn’t scrapped. Some of the vehicles that require minor work to be kept on the road are placed in a separate lot where those who are handy with tools can buy the complete car.

“We’ve had people leave us cars in their will,” Van Deurzen said, and added, “we’ve had some notable cars such as a Mercedes-Benz kit car and a Toyota 4-Runner that was only a couple of years old. We’ve also had boats, trailers, school buses and even ATVs donated to the cause.”

Van Deurzen concluded, “Calgary’s Kidney Car is currently the biggest vehicle donation program in North America. As cars will always have a life cycle, the program is a real solution to help remove unwanted vehicles.”

Greg Williams is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Have a column tip? Contact him at 403-287-1067, gregwilliams@shaw.ca, or visit gregwilliams.ca.